A big car drew up. A Riley. A man was driving. He got out, opened the passenger door and handed a lady out. I would have known that car, that walk, and that turn of a blonde head anywhere. What the hell was Kate Graveney doing visiting her lover’s widow? Condolences?
I raised my glasses and trained them on the door as it opened. Liza smiled. I could see a welcome word or two being given and then Kate stepped inside. From their expressions and actions, this wasn’t a courtesy call by a woman finally acknowledging her lover’s death and come to pay her respects. They’d met before.
They might, if you simply read the faces and knew nothing about their relationship, be good friends.
Kate visited for thirty-five minutes. Again, the show at the door was too cosy for the situation. Unless I was hopelessly misjudging their nature. They could have met recently, recognising – in their shared bereavement – a kindred spirit, and become pals in that pragmatic supportive way of women. Somehow I doubted it, and I had to find out what was going on.
Liza’s day picked up its usual flow; that is, she disappeared behind her curtains until 3 o’clock. It was a big house, but how much housework could a person get through in a day? I watched her totter off with her wheelie. If she stuck to her routine, I had roughly an hour before she returned from her errands. I flicked off the leaves and dirt and made myself as presentable as I could. This would take strong nerves. I made my way down to East Heath Road and walked back up and into Willow Road.
I strolled smartly in through her gate to the comparative safety of her porch.
If anyone had been peeping through the net curtains of the neighbouring houses, they would have seen a man marching straight-backed along the road, open and easy, and then seeking entry at Mrs Caldwell’s. Had I met anyone coming along the street I would simply have tipped my cap, said good day and kept walking.
I studied the door. I’d watched her come out, pull the door to, lock the top Yale, and use a bigger key on the simple bolt below. I pulled out my penknife and flicked open the corkscrew gadget. I slotted it into the big bolt keyhole and felt for the single pin. Got it! I twisted and forced it back. I put the knife away and took out my little bent screwdriver and slid it into the Yale.
I began scrubbing. But it wasn’t as fine an instrument as my old pick. I felt some of the pins give but I couldn’t quite get the driver. I took a deep breath and wiped the sweat off my hands. This was taking longer than I’d hoped. Worse, I could hear the steady sound of a man’s footsteps heading my way. I had seconds to open the door and get out of sight, or withdraw now and pretend to have knocked and to be waiting for an answer.
I gave it a little more force and a couple of rubs back and forth and a twist and it gave. I pushed the door open. I just had time – I thought – to slip in and close the door gently behind me before the man could see me. I waited with my heart throbbing, listening for the footsteps to stop and come to the door.
People were nosy and protective in the suburbs. If he knew who lived here, he’d want to find out who the strange man was.
The footsteps kept going and I slumped against the door till my racing pulse slowed. I could hear the blood thudding in my ears. It struck me that this breaking and entering was beginning to become a habit. A bit of a career change for a former copper. And if they caught me this time, I was for the high jump.
I edged into the house along the hall. To the right was the best room that I’d been taken into; to the left a smaller room – her day room it looked like – with a scullery leading off. There was a door leading from the scullery into the garden. The grate was warm and the fire had been banked with dross to keep going till she got back. A pile of knitting lay by a footstool in front of a high-backed chair. A similar chair sat opposite. A wireless stood on a display cabinet containing china and glass. I put my hand on the wireless; it was still warm, the dial set for the Home Service. I wondered if she liked Dorsey too. A small dining table with four chairs tucked under it pressed itself against the wall. A carpet covered most of the lino.
The mantelpiece held a baroque clock that ticked too loudly for its size. On either side of it were photos; they showed Liza and an older woman from different periods in their lives. But there was no mistaking their relationship: mother and daughter had the same eyes and nervous smile as though they weren’t sure about being seen together or doing something as vain as having their photo taken.
I moved back into the hall. I knew what the best room was like so I took the stairs and found myself on the first landing with three doors leading off. One was the bathroom. The other two were bedrooms each with a single bed. And here was the funny thing. One had the air of disuse; not dirty or thick in dust, just a lack of any daily human presence. Everything was too neat, as though it was waiting for someone to return. On the bedroom table lay a set of hairbrush, comb and hand mirror, all in good tortoise-shell. It was a woman’s room but long unused. Her mother’s?
The second bedroom was clearly Liza’s. It too had a dressing room table and mirror and cupboards. A dressing gown was hung neatly behind the door and a pair of slippers were discarded beneath the bed. Also a single bed. I got down on my knees and examined the carpet. There were no marks of a double bed, a matrimonial bed, or even of a second single. No sign of a man about the house.
I climbed to the top landing. It had the feel of an area long abandoned. The layout was similar to the first. The bathroom was desolate and cold. I shivered and tried the next. It was empty except for a big trunk and some packing cases.
The third room was locked. It took me ten seconds to pick it; I was getting my touch back. I opened it, stepped into darkness and switched on the light.
The room was lush velvet and satins, reds and purples. A double bed dominated the space. It was covered by a heavy wine-red counterpane and matching plump pillows. The floor was carpeted wall to wall in a deep soft pile. Heavy curtains to match the bedding blocked the daylight. There was a basin and a sideboard on which tall candles had melted and spilled. In the top drawer of the sideboard, laid out carefully like a trousseau, were layers of fine black silk with red ribbons. For the first time I felt an intruder and wished myself out of there.
I locked the door and crept back downstairs and into the best room. It sat, mausoleum-like, in darkness. I flicked on the light and saw that the chairs and settee had been covered in a white cloth. The table had a leather mat over its surface. The piano too had a white sheet. The curtains would have been drawn to keep the light out and save the carpet. But nothing had fundamentally changed.
Then I wondered where the photos were of Tony in uniform and Tony and Liza.
They’d both stood on the piano. Maybe Liza put them away to save them from the light? They weren’t in any of the other rooms.
I walked over to the chest of drawers and began to pull them out one by one. In the second, on top of a slim photo album, I found the missing pictures. But the black edging had been removed.
I started to flick through the album. There were no wedding photos; perhaps they were bound separately? Then, on a page all by themselves were three photos of Kate Graveney. One was hand-tinted and she smiled out at me in a way I could only dream about. Without thinking what I was doing, I unpicked it from its corners and slipped it into my inside pocket. Every soldier needs a pin-up.
I kept turning the pages and found myself time-travelling. There were no captions, just dates under some of them. Tony and Liza grew steadily younger; they were children and sometimes they were with Liza’s mother and twice with a man whom I assumed was the father. But of whom? I’d heard of childhood sweethearts getting married but this was carrying it too far.
I glanced at my watch and saw with a jolt that my hour was almost up. Sometimes she took less. I slammed the album shut and slipped out of the room, casting it back into impenetrable dark. I got as far as the door when I heard the footsteps coming up the path. I froze; my heart stopped. I began stepping backwards away from the door. Footsteps climbed the stairs. I saw the shadow of a head and shoulders through the frosted glass. I would make a run for it out the back. I prayed the scullery door had its key in it.
I’d reached the end of the hall when the letterbox crashed and I heard the sound of envelopes hitting the floor.
I slumped to the ground and waited for the nausea to pass. I wanted a cigarette, badly, and gave myself a shake. There was no time left. I turned over and crawled to the door. I picked up the two letters and saw they were addressed to Caldwell all right: a Miss Caldwell. I dropped them, got to my feet and opened the door. I listened for a second, heard nothing and walked brazenly out, pulling the door behind me. I couldn’t afford the time to relock the big bolt;
Miss Liza Caldwell would have to believe she forgot to lock it on her way out.
I walked back down Willow Road towards the Heath, in the opposite direction to where she’d be coming from, cut off on to the path and up into the trees, whistling like I’d lost my dog. When I was far enough away I
